Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I of England (7 September 1533-24 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 to 24 March 1603, succeeding Mary I of England and preceding James I of England. Elizabeth, the last of the Tudor monarchs, was nicknamed "The Virgin Queen", as she never married, and she instead focused on ruling England as its sole monarch. Elizabeth's 44-year reign became known as a "golden age", under which England's military, overseas exploration, and arts thrived.

Early life
Elizabeth was born at the Palace of Placentia in Greenwich, England on 7 September 1533, the daughter of King Henry VIII of England and Queen Anne Boleyn. Her mother was executed two-and-a-half years after Elizabeth's birth due to her alleged incest and adultery, and their marriage was annulled, leaving Elizabeth as an "illegitimate" child of the King. She was demoted from "Princess" to "Lady Elizabeth", and she was taken care of (outside of court) by Lady Margaret Bryan, who taught Elizabeth Latin and other lessons for the nobility.

Princess Elizabeth
Lady Elizabeth was legitimized thanks to the efforts of Henry's sixth (and last) queen, Catherine Parr, as was her sister, Lady Mary. Elizabeth was the third-in-line to the throne after her younger brother, Prince Edward, and her older sister Mary. Edward ruled from 1547 until his death at the young age of fifteen in 1553, upon which he bequeathed the crown to his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, and removed Mary and Elizabeth from the succession. However, Edward's will was set aside and Mary became queen, deposing Lady Jane Grey. Elizabeth was imprisoned for nearly a year on the suspicion that she had supported Protestant rebels; unlike her Catholic sister Mary, Elizabeth was raised in the Protestant faith.

Succession to the throne
In 1558, Mary died without issue, and Elizabeth succeeded her half-sister to the throne. She depended heavily on a group of trusted advisers led by William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley. One of her first acts as queen was the establishment of an English Protestant church, of which she became the Supreme Governor; her religious settlement was to evolve into the Church of England.

Despite numerous courtships, Elizabeth never married or produced a Tudor heir to the throne, and she celebrated her "virginity" as she grew older; nevertheless, she was rumored to have had several lovers, such as Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester and Sir Walter Raleigh. Elizabeth was nicknamed "the Virgin Queen" for her supposed virginity.

In government, Elizabeth was more religiously and politically moderate than her father and half-siblings. Elizabeth avoided systematic religious persecution, and she was relatively tolerant, as opposed to her radical reformist father and brother and her devout Catholic sister. After the Pope declared her illegitimate in 1570 and released her subjects from allegiance to her, several conspiracies threatened her life, but her secret service - led by her trusted spymaster Francis Walsingham - was able to prevent these conspiracies from taking place. In 1568, her own cousin Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned for plotting against her, and she was executed in 1587.

In foreign affairs, Elizabeth maneuvered between the great powers of France and Spain, and she only half-heartedly supporteda number of ineffective, poorly resourced military campaigns in the Spanish Netherlands, France, and Ireland. By the mid-1580s, England could no longer avoid war with Spain, leading to the Anglo-Spanish War breaking out in 1585. In 1588, a Spanish Armada was sent to invade England, but it was defeated in a skirmish at Gravelines and then destroyed by storms as it circled the British Isles to return to Spain.

The Elizabethan era was famous for the flourishing of English drama under William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe and for the seafaring prowess of adventurers such as Francis Drake. Toward the end of her reign, a series of economic and military problems weakened her popularity, but she was acknowledged as a charismatic performer and dogged survivor in an era of limited government. She died at Richmond Palace in Surrey in 1603 at the age of 69, and her distant relative James VI of Scotland succeeded her as ruler of England.